The present invention relates to a rechargeable battery particularly for use in hearing aids or the like. In particular, the present invention is directed toward a hearing aid battery with a built-in inductive charging coil for recharging the hearing aid battery in situ.
Each hearing aid needs a battery power source to provide electrical current to its components. In Prior Art hearing aids, standard non-rechargeable batteries are used. Such batteries may last less than seven days before going dead. Constant replacement of hearing aid batteries is time consuming, expensive, environmentally unfriendly, and in many cases, a trying task.
Because of the small physical size of the batteries and the hearing aid housing, a large number of individuals who could benefit from the use of hearing aids are unable to do so because of their inability to open and close the access doors to the battery compartment in the hearing aid. It is very hard for most people, and impossible for others, particularly the elderly, who make up a large portion of hearing aid users.
Rechargeable batteries are known in the art. Various types of chemical compounds and mixtures for such batteries are know (e.g., Nickel and Cadmium, or NiCad). However, such Prior Art rechargeable batteries usually require removal of the battery or battery pack in order to charge the battery, or require the use of electrical contacts on the appliance for battery charging.
For example, cellular phones are generally provided with a removable battery pack which may be either charged while attached to the phone, or after removal, through use of a xe2x80x9ccharging standxe2x80x9d. Cordless phones may use a built-in (e.g., hard wired) battery pack which may be charged when the phone is placed in its cradle. While such designs work well for fairly large appliances such as cellular phones or cordless phones, the use of external electrical contacts or removable battery packs may not be suitable for some applications, such as hearing aids.
External electrical connections may be difficult to physically implement on an object as small as a hearing aid, and moreover, may present a shock hazard to the user (as well as potential corrosion problems when placed in contact with the alimentary canal). Removable battery packs present the same or similar problem to prior art hearing aids as described abovexe2x80x94such a removable pack would be so small as to make it difficult, if not impossible, for a user to manipulate (especially elderly users which comprise a large majority of hearing aid customers). In addition, providing a removable battery pack would necessitate seam lines on the hearing aid housing and electrical contacts, both of which may increase the size and cost of the hearing aid or present sharp edges which are unacceptable in an in-the-ear design.
Rechargeable batteries in standard sizes (e.g., xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cAAxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cAAAxe2x80x9d) are also known in the art and may be purchased as substitutes for standard non-rechargeable batteries. Generally, such rechargeable batteries do not last as long as a comparative alkaline battery before recharging is required. When recharging is required, the batteries must generally be removed from their battery compartment (unless a separate charging port and circuit are provided) and placed in a stand-alone charger.
Presuming that a rechargeable battery could be provided for appliances as small as a hearing aid (or the like), such a solution would not solve the fundamental underlying problem of battery insertion and removal. In contrast, such a solution would only increase the frequency at which a hearing aid battery would need to be removed and replaced.
Inductive chargers are known in the art for use with small appliances such as electric toothbrushes and the like. Current passes through an inductive coil in a charging stand. A current is induced in a mating coil in the appliance when the appliance is placed in the charging stand. This current is then used to charge the batteries within the appliance. Such inductive chargers are particularly useful for appliances used in wet environments such as electric toothbrushes and other dental care items. Such chargers, however, have the advantage of being able to mechanically locate the appliance in a predetermined orientation (e.g., via a tab or other locating device) in relationship to the charging coil such that the appliance and charger are at optimal position for inducing current.
One approach to solving the hearing aid battery problem would be to apply such a Prior Art inductive charging system to a hearing aid (or other small appliance) design. Mattatall, U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,988, issued Apr. 12, 1983 and incorporated herein by reference, discloses such a design. However, to implement such a design would require that the hearing aid manufacturer re-design the hearing aid (or other small appliance) to include the necessary charging circuitry. To the best of applicant""s knowledge, no hearing aid designer has yet undertaken such a design change, and no commercial embodiment of the Mattatall Patent has yet been placed into production. Mattatall also discloses (Col. 5, lines 2-12) the use of an LED for rectifying current and for indicating to the user when the hearing aid is in optimal position for charging. Hearing aids, being very small, may be difficult to properly orient with relationship to an inductive charger. Thus, Mattatall uses his LED to allow the user to manually position the hearing aid for charging purposes.
Even if such a design were commercially available, it would still present problems to users. For example, existing hearing aid users would be forced to discard their present hearing aids and purchase a new, rechargeable model, if such a recharging feature were desired. Moreover, most rechargeable appliances (as in Mattatall) feature xe2x80x9cbuilt-inxe2x80x9d batteries, such that when the battery is no longer capable of being charged, the entire appliance must be discarded. Moreover, it may be difficult for users to manually position the hearing aid in the charger for optimal current induction.
Rohde, U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,433, issued Sep. 28, 1999, and incorporated herein by reference, discloses battery pack for a laptop or the like, with an inductive charging circuit. The design of Rhode allows the battery pack to be removed and placed on an inductive charger without the need for physical electrical connections. There are several problems with this design. To begin with, it is not cost-effective to install an inductive charging circuit in a battery pack which already contains external electrical contacts.
As illustrated in FIG. 2 of Rohde, the battery pack 14 is provided with external electrical contacts at one end. It makes little or no sense to incorporate a relatively expensive and complex inductive charger into a batter pack when the battery pack can be readily recharged through inexpensive electrical contacts. Moreover, the inductive charging coil of Rohde appears to take up a substantial portion of the battery pack.
Moreover, the Rohde design appears to require that the battery pack be removed before charging. As noted above, the use of removable batteries or battery packs does not solve the fundamental problem with hearing aids and other small appliances where removal of the battery pack presents difficulty to the user. In addition, it does not appear that the device of Rohde would be scalable to something as small as a hearing aid.
Thus, a need still exists in the art to provide a method and apparatus for recharging a battery for a hearing aid (or other small appliance) without requiring removal of the battery from the appliance, without require the use of external physical electrical contacts, and without requiring the re-design of the appliance to incorporate such a charging circuit. The present invention solves all of these problems.
The object of the invention is to provide a user-friendly system of recharging existing hearing aid batteries, saving time, money and frustration. Rechargeable batteries are available for a variety of applications, but have not been utilized in hearing aids. The invention utilizes a wireless solution of charging a battery by inductively coupling energy between the battery and the charging unit. Therefore, no removal of the battery from the hearing aid is necessary. The user may simply place the hearing aid into the charging cradle at night for recharge.
The present invention further provides an inductive charging circuit within the housing of a standard hearing aid battery cell. By placing the inductive charging circuit within a standard hearing aid battery cell, a user can convert a Prior Art hearing aid which uses disposable batteries into a rechargeable hearing aid, simply be substituting the rechargeable battery/charger of the present invention for the non-rechargeable battery. The hearing aid (or other small appliance) may then be readily recharged without the need for battery removal. Moreover, the user need not remove the battery for months or even years. In addition, in an alternative embodiment, a novel charging station is provided with a rotatable induction coil. The induction coil may be automatically rotated by a controller until optimal current induction in the hearing aid battery coil occurs. This feature allows the hearing aid to be charged regardless of its relative position to the charging stand.